As a teacher with 31 years of experience, Mary Ruth McGinn has always sought innovative ways to meet the needs of each of her students. She has spent her entire career in schools where a majority of students speak English as a second language and where poverty significantly impacts the...
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For years I have worked on teaching my class the art of yielding to others. The idea of facilitating a student led discussion with twenty-four students, where no one raises a hand asking permission to speak, but everyone contributes to the conversation has always intrigued me. When should I speak? When is it better to hold my tongue and allow others to be heard? How does knowing when to speak help me as an individual and help my class as a whole?
For many, this may seem an impossible feat, but for Lightning Strike Kids Opera Company, anything is possible.
We participate in exercises to instill the value of yielding and to help us understand our own tendencies in behavior. We start with a counting game, which when introduced, seems simple, but in reality is quite difficult to master.
The objective . . . Start at 0, count to ten. One person starts the counting and others follow in sequence. If two or more people say any given number at the same time, the counting starts over at 0. In this manner, when the group members reach 10, they declare victory. Try it. How many attempts will it take?
Video of counting exercise
Yesterday, during a visit from our Community Superintendent, Dr. LaVerne Kimball, I witnessed a transformation in my students. They did it! For the first time, without my intervention, they shared thoughts, feelings and ideas about our opera process while successfully yielding to their classmates. One student stood to speak and immediately noticed his company mate standing across the circle. He sat down and waited for another opportunity, allowing his classmate to take the floor. This continued for twenty minutes, with everyone listening attentively and adding to the dialog when appropriate. Dr. Kimball now knows about our company jobs, our central message for the opera and specific aspects of our learning. But more importantly, we know more about ourselves.
Ashley
Angel
Imari
Michael
Emmah
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About Mary Ruth McGinn
As a teacher with 32 years of experience, Mary Ruth McGinn has always sought innovative ways to meet the needs of each of her students. She has spent her entire career in schools where a majority of students speak English as a second language and where poverty significantly impacts the learning experiences and opportunities of students and their families.
Nineteen years ago she had an experience that changed her life and altered her professional path in a profound way. She attended training sessions at The Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York City, spent nine intense days living the process of creating an original opera and learned how to replicate the experience with her students. She then began creating opera with her students and using the process of creating the opera as a vehicle to teach curriculum and life skills. The authentic purpose for learning coupled with the arts provided the perfect stage on which to construct a love for life-long learning.
The profundity of the work, the transformation of the students and a desire to “bring to light” new ideas in education, inspired Mary Ruth to share this way of thinking and learning. In 2006 she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship, sponsored and funded by Teatro Real and Fundación SaludArte in Madrid, and a sabbatical from Montgomery County, to travel to Spain to develop and implement a similar program there. She lived there two years training teachers and working side by side with teachers and students in their classrooms. The reception of the project was overwhelming. Mary Ruth returns to Madrid every summer to train a new team of educators and artists in the process. In the summer of 2018, she joined forces with The Kennedy Center to offer the opera training for teachers in the Washington Metro area. She currently teaches third grade at Stedwick Elementary School in Montgomery Village, Maryland where she is implementing a classroom curriculum based on the principles of authentic learning.
Read more of Mary Ruth's blog Learning for Real.
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